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Chronicle of the Lost Day
This tome narrates the events that lead to Shaitah's attack on the world and her attempt at dominance, and how her forces were finally defeated. Chapters Lonely Goddess Shaitah, the goddess of Night, Winter and Slumber, felt abandoned by creation. How couldn't they appreciate the beauty and calm of the night? The peace it brought to the world? How could they otherwise rest and be ready for the next day's labor? And what about the beauty of winter? The peacefulness of a snow-blanketed field? Didn't it bring people closer to each other as they stood over open fires, eating, drinking, and telling tales? This ate at her mind and soul through the endless cycles of the world. She deserved so much more. But barely anyone was grateful to her, worshiped her. Eventually, she had enough. After pleading to her brother Tah, who dismissed her requests as petty and childish, she realized that, if she wanted change, she'd need to do it herself. Darkness Born Shaitah made a decision: she would control the world, take it away from her brother's grasp. How would she be able to gain control? Maybe if she showed her might, her majesty, her dominance, maybe they would realize how wonderful she is, and worship her forever! If she showed her strength, her might, as the master of night, winter and sleep... eternal sleep. So Shaitah traveled to Hades and spoke to Torog, god of farewells and death, offering him power and glory if he helped her with her plans. Torog realized this was his opportunity! But they needed direct access to the Material Plane. They needed a way to channel the energy of night, winter, sleep and death, in a way that could be physically manifested. Shaitah had a clear vision: she needed an army, one so powerful that it would show her clear, absolute dominance. She would harness this army and strike swiftly. And this army would be lead by the devil Belagog, who would become the intermediate entity between the gods and the humanoids. All she needed was someone faithful enough, loving enough to never, ever doubt her guidance. And to the prayers she listened, and in the prayers she found the answer; a voice that called to her. The Chosen Child Arish Silarius, "Endeavor", was his name. An extremely devout worshiper of Shaitah, the tall, handsome maroon tiefling quickly rose up through the ranks of the Winter Church and became a self-proclaimed Archbishop. In a dream Shaitah revealed her true form to him, and commended him for his devotion. His reward for such loyalty would be the dominance over Erone, which would allow him to turn the people into worshipers of the goddess and reveal her dark glory, and revel in it. In that dream, Shaitah revealed the way to build a massive altar, a place where Arish could channel Shaitah's necromancy powers and build up an incredible undead army. In her wickedness, she held hostage the dwarves of Erone by secretly surrounding the kingdom with hordes of demons. She did this to make Grabthar design and build the altar, as the Master Builder among the gods, he was the only one with the skill to build such a thing. He acquired a dwarven form and called himself Thragbar the Reluctant. Arish captured and slaved members of different races, from many cities, with the aid of multiple mercenary groups and loyal armies and followers of the Winter Church, convincing them with promises of glory and power over the continent. Arish's slave force eventually built the incredible steel, adamantine, and copper altar known as the Channel, following the instructions of Thragbar, who presented himself as an emissary of Shaitah. It was built it in what was the Isle of Hurag, the home of an ancient tiefling civilization and home of his ancestors, south of Erone. After the altar was built, Thragbar disappeared as Grabthar returned to the divine planes. Vowing to never let something like this happen, he created the Daughters of Grabthar and imbued them with his blessing, as a way to try and atone himself from his errors after Tah, and defend the world as good as he could. The Channel Belagog continued supervising Arish's work, and helped him control the powers of death through The Channel. For a creature to become undead, it needs to die in a violent manner. The anger and frustration of the dying soul helps create the pure evil essence that permeates an undead creature. Once the creature dies violently, it is subject to a ritual that uses the Channel. It is a portal between our plane and the Shadowfell, where Shaitah lives. The Channel, as it name implies, bring in the essence of Shaitah and channels it upon the cadavers through the gates of Hades. The field of fiendish energy that is emitted by the Channel is reflected and projected by a huge, multi-faceted obsidian stone. This distributes and projects the energy toward the corpses awaiting to be revived through the evil necromancy ritual. To create a powerful-enough army, Arish thought big. A humanoid undead army wouldn't be enough; they needed greater amounts of power. Thus the illuminated idea of ogres, trolls, and even giants as undead. But how? A dragon. Her name was Eriakash, a powerful, ancient and fertile golden dragon, whose mate had died. Arish found her immense lair in the middle of the Dragonclaw Mountains. She had twelve dozen eggs, her children the only golden dragons left beside her in the world. Arish's armies took hold of her lair, and enslaved her, used her as a killing machine. Hapless trolls, unwitting ogres, ignorant cyclops... They all fell under the majestic killing power of Eriakash. The army was completed. The dragon eggs were broken, and Eriakash was abandoned in Hurag. Eventide The stage had been set, and the beginning of the end would start. An emissary from the Winter Church would present a declaration for the town to surrender. All cities and towns ignored the message: some emissaries were ridiculed; some pursued out of the cities, and some even killed. After receiving the expected negative, A wave of undead, foul creatures, re-created through the use of The Channel, was unleashed upon the southern lands of Erone, upon each city and town. Settlement after settlement was ravaged and destroyed, with no care for man, woman, elderly, children... Human, dwarf, gnome, elves. All were being sentenced to death, and their only crime was not being a worshipper of Shaitah. No army, no force could stop these attacks. The sheer power of the giant undead was unstoppable, relentless and cruel, who were also assisted by regular troops of all races that had made a vow to Shaitah, some out of sheer greed, others to save their families. Bardanon, Treilfast, Derrinlight... City after city fell down to the power of Arish's armies, who came to be known as the Eventide. All the races joined forces... Humans and elves, gnomes and halflings, orcs and dwarves. And despite their best efforts, their blood was spilled and mingled amongst the ruins of these glorious cities of yore. Days turned into night with the thick black smoke of burning cities, burning people. And as it was, the Eventide had come to Erone. Radiance Reborn The Radiant One was Reena Barrenrock, daughter of Arna, of the dwarven mountain city of Thurgendrac. She was pure-blooded and from a powerful family, but unlike most dwarves, she worshipped Tah instead of Grabthar and thus became a well-known, powerful cleric, although looked at with cynicism by her fellow dwarves. Fear had spread through Erone already. There we no more demands made by the invading forces. No petitions or requests. Just senseless, utter destruction as the night was brought into Erone through the Eventide. But Reena was determined to turn this around. While others squabbled and argued about the best military strategy, she looked beyond that, and in her wisdom she invoked the intervention of Tah. Then Tah finally heard her, like a single, bright beacon in the darkest space. He heard the voice he was waiting for, the sliver of faith he needed to act upon. He brought her astral form to his domain and told her what she needed to do, imbued her with his wisdom. She rallied the people of Heatherleigh, Novatia, Quilarin, Thurgendrac and Bindalir. The elves of Quilarin closed their Elvendom, preparing themselves for the onslaught and not helping the rest of the continent. The dwarves of Bindalir were wary of her worship to Tah and her claims of having seen his glory. Armies clashed, trying to defend what was left... And yet, it was but a distraction. Reena managed to gather a group of adventurers, who called themselves The Radiance Reborn. And off they sailed towards Hurag, to face the Eventide and Arish in their home. The Lost Day The Radiance Reborn struck the Channel exactly after midnight. The elements of the Eventide that had remained in the island were caught by surprise, as they didn't expect such a surprise attack, especially by a group of only seven people. The battle was relentless, bloody, powerful. After twenty-three and a half hours of combat the Radiance Reborn found the Channel, and knew what they had to do: if seven beings of pure soul walked into the Channel, it would cause an endless cycle of life and death that would consume the device and banish it from existence. Unfortunately, those stepping into it would also disappear. One by one, the members of the Radiance Reborn stepped on the device, and only Reena remained outside as the device started to shake, when Arish suddenly appeared, teleported by Shaitah to defend the Channel. Reena fought valiantly, but was already wounded and tired by the combat against the Eventide. She kept Arish at bay, and with her last remaining strength she ran towards the device. Arish threw his obsidian mace at her, hitting her squarely on the back of her head. But she wasn't dead yet. With her final breath, she finally crawled onto the machine as it shook violently, a blinding, pulsing white light flashing on and off, each time more rapidly. Arish covered his eyes initially, but then he dared to take a look just in time to see Reena looking back at him, blood streaming down her face, but smiling. Then a final, brutal shock wave struck him, and Arish Silarius disappeared from existence. A Door Closed In fact, everything was gone. The Channel, the Radiance Reborn, Eriakash. All that remained was barren, scorched land. On Erone, the undead, removed from their source of necromancy energy, started to drop to the ground, unmoving, the unholy glow in their eyes gone. Erone survived. But this couldn't happen again. The sorcerers, wizards, warlock, clerics, and druids of the world invoked all their powers, the magick, the gods of good and neutrality, and erased the day from history. That way, no one would ever be able to make something like this again. And with that, the door was closed.